In cases of severe obesity, patients may currently undergo several types of surgery either to tie off or staple portions of the large or small intestine or stomach, and/or to bypass portions of the same to reduce the amount of food desired by the patient, and the amount absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. The procedures currently available include laparoscopic banding, where a device is used to “tie off” or constrict a portion of the stomach, vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG), or a more invasive surgical procedure known as a Roux-En-Y gastric bypass to effect permanent surgical reduction of the stomach's volume and subsequent bypass of the intestine.
Although the outcome of these stomach reduction surgeries leads to patient weight loss because patients are physically forced to eat less due to the reduced size of their stomach, several limitations exist due to the invasiveness of the procedures, including time, general anesthesia, healing of the incisions and other complications attendant to major surgery. In addition, these procedures are only available to severely obese patients (morbid obesity, Body Mass Index >=40) due to their complications, including the risk of death, leaving patients who are considered obese or moderately obese with few, if any, interventional options.
In addition to the above described gastrointestinal reduction surgery, endoluminal sleeves are known for partially or totally lining certain portions of the stomach and of the intestine with the aim to separate or bypass at least part of the food flow from the lined portions of the gastrointestinal tract. It has been observed that by creating a physical barrier between the ingested food and certain regions of the gastrointestinal wall by means of endoluminal sleeves, similar benefits for weight loss and improvement or resolution of type 2 diabetes may be achieved as with gastric bypass surgery. Physicians believe that by creating a physical barrier between the ingested food and selected regions of the gastrointestinal wall, it might be possible to purposefully influence the mechanism of hormonal signal activation originating from the intestine. It was observed that endoluminal sleeves in certain regions of the stomach and the duodenum contributed to improve glycemic control and to reduce or eliminate other co-morbidities of obesity. Moreover the lining of parts of the GI-tract by means of endosleeves provide an alternative or an additional therapy to traditional therapies of type II diabetes and obesity. Endosleeves may be placed in a brief and less invasive procedure and address the patient's fear of surgery. Contrary to traditional gastric bypass surgery, the result of endoluminal sleeve surgery is reversible and the sleeve can be removed after achievement of the clinical result, but also in case of the occurrence of undesired side effects or clinical complications. A typical duodenal sleeve device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,267,694 where the proximal end of a flexible, floppy sleeve of impermeable material defining a sleeve lumen is endoscopically deployed and anchored with the help of a barbed stent in the pylorus or in the superior section of the duodenum, the stent also ensuring that the proximal lumen opening of the sleeve remains open. Chyme from the stomach enters the proximal lumen opening of the sleeve and passes through the sleeve lumen to the distal lumen opening. Digestive enzymes secreted in the duodenum pass through the duodenum on the outside of the sleeve. The enzymes and the chyme do not mix until the chyme exits from the distal lumen opening of the liner tube. In such a way, the efficiency of the process of digestion of the chyme is diminished, reducing the ability of the gastrointestinal tract to absorb calories from the food.
G.I. Dynamics, Inc., (Watertown, Mass., USA) produces the Endobarrier(R) device that is substantially a duodenal sleeve device configured so that the proximal end of the device is anchored inside the duodenal bulb with the help of a barbed anchoring stent that also keeps the proximal lumen opening open.
In U.S. 2004/0148034 is taught a duodenal sleeve device attached to a funnel, the funnel configured for anchored to the gastric walls inside the gastric cavity in proximity to the lower esophageal sphincter. Food passing the lower esophageal sphincter is directed by the funnel into the proximal lumen opening of the duodenal sleeve device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,283 is taught a duodenal sleeve device attached to a large stent-like anchoring device that presses outwardly against the pyloric portion of the stomach, the pyloric sphincter and the duodenal bulb.
In known endosleeves, it has been observed that the sleeve devices tend to move inside the GI tract and migrate away from their original anchoring position.
A further important issue with endoluminal sleeves is the risk of failure of sealing of the lined lumen and, hence, the risk of an undesired leakage of the partially digested food flow in the interstice between the lumen wall and the sleeve. Moreover, known endoluminal sleeve attachment devices and methods are not yet fully satisfying with regard to permitting normal biological events, including vomiting, to occur.
Further fields of desirable improvements related with endoluminal sleeves are their removal from the patient without injuring the involved tissues, the rapidity of deployment and removal of the sleeve, and the repeatability of the sleeve placement.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved devices and procedures for anchoring and sealing an endoluminal, particularly a duodenal sleeve in the GI tract.